Teddy Geiger Speaks On Gender Transition

Musician and singer-songwriter Teddy Geiger recently spoke with The New York Times, and shared about her experiences with her gender transition. "I just feel more open," she said. "Because I'm willing to talk about everything now, people are then more open with me."

According to her, she tried to steer away from themes having to do with her gender identity in her music, but was unsuccessful. "There's no longer this piece of me back there saying, 'Don't go there.' I used to find that I'd sing songs and think, 'Ooh, it sounds like I'm talking about that stuff, and I don't want to talk about that stuff.' But it was just coming out."

Geiger is originally from Rochester, where she grew up unaware of what transgenderism was. "I can remember back to being 5 and looking in the mirror, feeling like a girl and wanting that. But growing up in Rochester, there were limited resources. I'd never met a trans person before." According to her, she didn't learn about transgenderism until she was already an adult.

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A move to California saw a period of high anxiety for her, coping with heavy smoking of both cigarettes and marijuana. She says she maintained her nails obsessively. "It was the only femininity that I was expressing, so I wanted it to be perfect. It was the only thing I could control."

Acceptance that she was transgender came with participation in an anxiety treatment program in 2017. The program, which lasted a month, helped her "get to the bottom of the gender thing." When she graduated, she announced her intention to transition.